Into the Storm
by CookandBaker
Summary: 151 fans on their way to preview the latest Hobbit movie find that due to lightning storm their plane has crashed and disappeared. Landing unharmed on the Lonely Mountain on the eve of the great battle, the unlikely heroes team together to kill the dragon Smaug, save Middle Earth, defeat the dark lord Sauron, and prevent the tragic deaths detailed in J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Hobbit".
1. Chapter 1

Author's Note: Will you join the me on this ride to explore an alternate Earth-Meets-Middle-Earth saga? This is, of course, purely a work of "hilarious" fiction meant to explore fandom and the writing of fanfiction as well as theorize on the New Line adaptation of the "Hobbit". What else would be a dream come true for all 150 fans – elves, dwarves, hobbits, humans, even orcs, at heart - to find themselves in the midst of their favourite story AND to become heroes in their own right.

I need readers' help to invent characters names and backgrounds (entirely fictional, of course) and we'll see where the story leads us, okay?

Disclaimer: I do not own the story, nor do I claim to have any control over future events.

Please don't be offended, this is purely a work of FAN FICTION :). I changed, of course, omit names of real life plane companies and conventions and other things.

Prologue

Martha Hackers could not believe her ears when her name was called out at the ToonConvention panel to be the first person selected to attend the preview of the new Hobbit movie. She felt her heart thump with joy as she nearly sprang out of her seat, upsetting the Mountain Dew in her boyfriend Alistair's hand.

"You are so lucky!" the people around her murmured in obvious envy. They clapped her on the back and she got to her (shaking) feet to approach the representatives who briefed her on the trip details. Alistair took her by the hand – he was just as much a hardcore fan as her, except that they disagreed on whether the addition of Tauriel was the best thing ever or the worst thing the moviemakers could do.

Arriving back at the hotel late that night after a whirlwind day at the convention and a night out in Old Town San Diego drinking herself silly over margaritas, she was totally exhausted.

When Martha started to brush her teeth, she noticed for the first time the ringing in her ears that had started after the (miraculous and shocking) panel. At first she had ignored it in all the excitement, or subconsciously attributed it to the screaming crowds (she had yelled herself hoarse as well), but now Martha noticed the ringing in her ears grew stronger now, like piercing whistle.

"Hey," called Alistair from outside, "I've got this ringing in my head all day."

"Strange," she yelled back, grimacing at the pain in her throat, "Me too."

"Must be the yelling at the panel," said he, just as hoarsely, "I'll pop down at Walmart and grab a couple of aspirins. But let me get out of this get-up first."

"I was with the both of you and I'm not having any problem in my ears," Alistair's mom shouted in her New York accent, "But both of you are excited, that's what. Let me go with you."

Mrs. Cann would never be hoarse. She had yelled just as much as the both of them and her voice was not the worse for wear.

Martha smiled. Alistair's mom was awesome, a true hardcore fan in her own right. She had read the "Hobbit" and "Lord of the Rings" to Alistair as a baby and was a master of Sindarin, Quenya, _and _Neo-Khuzdul. The three of them had made the amazing 23-hour road trip down to the convention together.

"I hope she gets to come along as well," thought Martha, "I really hope so."

Martha got herself out of the fantasy-cosplay outfit Alistair's mom had made for them (matching elven armour) and crawled into the bath, hoping to relax after all the excitement of the day and smiling to herself in anticipation of her impending pilgrimage.

"I can't wait. I can't wait. How am I supposed to effing wait until November? Oh..."

When Martha fell asleep after downing a couple of aspirins and reblogging images of the day's panel on Tumblr, the events of the panel played back clearly in her mind. In her dreams, she saw the teaser trailer replay itself in its entirety, in all its glorious 48-frames-per-second detail and in astonishing clarity. She heard Pippin's voice, saw every scene exactly as she had seen early in the way. But as she drifted off into deep sleep, the last thing she hazily remembered seeing was Thorin Oakenshield looking directly at her, and saying as he did in the trailer, "Will _you_ stand with me one last time?"

In her sleep, Martha murmured, "Aye, I will. That I will."


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Oh my goodness, thanks for the reviews :) I feel such a burden to live up to the expectations the storylines have set. So if you have any feedback/ideas, do send them over... I really want to do justice to the story idea. It would be such a disappointed if the story doesn't quite measure up... This chapter will introduce some more of the lucky fans as well as elaborate on their backstories. I hope its interesting and relatable, and not too boring :).. or sacrilegious.

_September 2014 - The Fan Contest Winners are Announced_

_**Taipei, Taiwan**_

Chun Li dashed back from the train station to her apartment in glee - her engineering classes scheduled at the university were cancelled this afternoon, and she couldn't wait to just sit back and enjoy a little breather - to sit back, drink some bubble tea, and watch some of her favourite online TV shows.

"_Wo dao jia le,_" she announced as she threw open the door to her apartment after struggling for a couple of moments with the multiple locks on the hostel door. (I'm home now.)

Throwing a kiss at the poster on the wall she was speaking to, a dashing print she had ordered online of BBC's Sherlock Holmes featuring, according to her, the most attractive guy in the universe.

She threw down her back after pulling off her sneakers, and slipping on houseshoes, she puled her laptop open - the internet connection at the university was SO slow.

While waiting for the laptop to boot up, she dashed to the kitchenette and started boiling water for instant noodles.

Finally, Chun Li sat down at her laptop and began to scan websites... just the usual - email, social networks, photo albums of celebrities she liked, news pieces of her favorite shows, etc. Chun Li was not really into the Hobbit, not as much as she was into Sherlock. In fact, she only watched the movies because the stars of "Sherlock" were starring in the Hobbit as well. Of course, she liked the first two movies and thought they were great, but she didn't really know much about J. R. R. Tolkien or the world of Middle Earth.

As Chun Li opened her email inbox, she started to scream in Mandarin. It was just too unbelieve to be true, but she opened the email after five minutes of combined pain and elation. Her bowl of instant noodles crashed to the floor, but Chun Li would just have to clean it up later... she had just won a free trip to New Zealand!

* * *

**_In Manchester, England..._**

"Thorin!" shouted Buff, "Hey, buddy, come here."

The adorable Scottish terrier bounded into the room and came and placed his paws on Buff's knees. Turning his wheelchair around with some difficulty due to his weight, Buff reached down and petted his dog.

"Love you, fella," he says, reaching down to pet the dog, "You're my best friend, and guess what! You know that contest I won to go to New Zealand in November? I wrote and asked the organizers, and they said you're coming with me, buddy! We're going to New Zealand!"

The dog barked in approval and licked his master's hand.

"Now, Thorin," chided Buff, "We must start to get serious. Our roommate George's coming too, and we've got to help him fill in these forms. You're technically his "seeing-eye" dog."

Buff turned to his desk and found the entry-page on his laptop.

"So, Buff McIntyre, if you could be a creature in middle-earth what would you be?"

"Woof!" replied Thorin the terrier,

"Aye, aye, capt'n," agreed Buff, "Of course I'd be an elf. Nothing cooler... now what about you!"

Thorin whined and Buff reached to grab a treat from the open jar on his table, holding it out to Thorin.

"Good day," said Buff, "Obviously, you'd be a tame warg. A big, tough, fierce warg with a heart of gold."

Buff smiled - today was a happy day. Not all his days were happy. Some days, he felt so down thinking of the life he once had. However, Buff was usually contented with the life he had now as fulltime editor of the world's leading fansite for all things Tolkien-related. With George and Thorin, he considered himself the happiest guy in the world. Buff loved to dream that he was a tall, graceful, elf, but at thirty, his hair was thinning and wouldn't grow past his shoulders. He also had grown fat in the wheelchair. Cosplaying as an elf just felt so _wrong, _Buff didn't want to do it anymore.

George entered the room, smiling widely from ear to ear,

"Filling out the forms?"

"Yup!"

"I heard you typing from the next room... time to let Thorin out to do his business."

"I'll do it," said Buff, wheeling past George to the door with the terrier bounding past him.

"Gee, thanks," said George, trying to move out of the way and stumbling over some books on the floor. He didn't need a walking cane around the house, but sometimes it wasn't easy to move around. George had been legally blind since he was a kid. As a piano teacher, he could still earn a living, but people avoided him generally because he was shy and wore really, really thick glasses through which his strange-looking eyes could be seen. On the other side of the heavy lenses, George could see the outlines of the world through his damaged retinas. He was, in general, quite contented. George didn't know why Buff wanted him to go to New Zealand. He sort-of, kinda liked the Lord of the Rings movies, but he didn't get the same kick of being a fan that Buff did. Still, they were best buddies and they did everything together (not without Thorin, of course).

"Strange," thought George, spinning around and trying to find the source of a odd smell wafting into his nose. It confused it - as if something was burning distantly in the air, "Has Buff taken to smoking new cigars?"

* * *

**Lyons, France**

Jacques looked up from his cubicle and glanced sideways at his colleague, Marie. He had always been infatuated with her, the young, sweet and bubbly fellow IT-graduate-turned-programmer. They shared a love of pastries, intensive online gaming, fantasy role-play, and Tolkien, but Jacques was literally nerdy whereas Marie was just hip and cool in all the ways he couldn't be. He loved being her friend, but he just wanted a way to take their relationship to the next level and didn't know how, or whether she was interested in him at all.

Jacques made up his mind today, however - he would invite her to dinner that evening. They would go to a nice restaurant for an early dinner and then go for a walk in the park in the evening. Then he would pick the right moment and ask her the... the big question.

Soon they found themselves in the park. The autumn leaves drifted down from trees about them and Marie was as ravishing as ever, looking stunning in a chic cardigan to ward off the gentle chill that settled over French parks in the fall.

They laughed and talked. They talked about work, about food, about Dungeons and Dragons, about movies, about comics, about art - and then Jacques decided to pop the question. Nervously, he took Marie's hand and led her to a park bench. The distant city lights flickered around them, becoming brighter and more colourful as the last rays of the autumn sun disappeared serenely.

"Marie, I want to ask you a question," said he quietly as she turned to look at him with her enormous hazel eyes.

Her eyes distracted him for a second, but Jacques cleared his throat,

"I want you to share the singularly most... wonderful... thing that has happened to me."

Jacques pulled a folded paper, printed from his email inbox, out of his coat pocket,

"Marie, would you like to be my partner for the exclusive Hobbit movie preview in New Zealand?"

Marie's mouth dropped open in astonishment. She wanted to scream - for years and years she was saving to go to New Zealand for the pilgrimage of a lifetime, to visit Hobbiton, to...

Jacques grinned at the excitement on her face. Surely it was a good sign. He thrust the paper at her and she pulled it open,

"You... really... want... _me?" _she gasped, looking at him with surprise.

"Yes," said Jacques intensely, meeting her gaze.

"Oui! Oui!" exclaimed Marie, "Of COURSE! Oh my goodness... I can't believe it!"

Her hands were clenched in excitement and tears filled her eyes... the opportunity of a lifetime! So unbelievable, and yet so true.

The elation was probably enhanced by the fact that Marie had discovered this morning at precisely 11:17am that she had _not _won the fan contest. Feeling slightly deflated, she had brushed off her disappointed feelings and told herself, "I wouldn't be so lucky any way."

"I didn't win the competition," she said at last, breaking the silence of a moment's pause between them, "I was so disappointed."

"In a way," said Jacques, "Might I be a little selfish to be glad that you didn't win... so that I could share the prize with you... the journey of a lifetime."

Marie laughed and teased him. Both of them would later forget what they talked about late into the night, but both their eyes would brighten with a glimmer, a shining beam of delight and anticipation.


End file.
